CEO and Co-founder, MAX, Mr. Adetayo Bamiduro, speaks about the huge growth potential in the African mobility industry and how MAX is leveraging emerging technologies to further unlock the potentials. Emma Okonji presents the excerpts:
As a mobility company, how will you describe the future of mobility in Nigeria and Africa as a continent, and what prospects do you foresee?
The future of mobility in Nigeria and Africa is quite promising. Mobility is fast evolving around the world and Africa as a continent is not lagging behind. Over the years, we have seen the growth of ride hailing technology on the African continent and we have also seen the rise of Electric Vehicles (EVs) operating in cities like Lagos in Nigeria and in Rwanda. Again, we can see the rise in collaboration between Fintechs and financial institutions to develop the mobility industry. MAX on its part, is transforming mobility on the continent and we are changing the way drivers do have access to vehicles and we are making it a lot easier for drivers to be able to finance or rent commercial vehicles for their mobility business, which ranges from electric vehicles to electric motorcycles and electric tricycles.
MAX is celebrating nine years of offering quality services in the mobility sector. What impact has it created on businesses and the Nigerian economy since its inception?
So MAX is solving critical challenges in the mobility industry in Nigeria and Africa. MAX started logistics business in 2015, which is nine years ago. Together with my co-founder, we started the business while we were in the university, studying for our Masters Degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, and in the past nine years, we have used technology and innovation to solve real challenges in the mobility industry. We started as a logistics company, providing last-mile delivery services to customers, which includes small businesses, large corporate organisations and e-commerce companies. Much later, we realised that drivers were facing some critical challenges in getting access to vehicles through which they could do mobility business and earn a living for themselves. So at that point, MAX shifted focus to help drivers have access to vehicles, through our structured finance model, and till date, MAX has supported over 45, 000 drivers, with a large fleet size across three countries, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon, covering 18 cities in West Africa.
What could have motivated you and your co-founder to establish a mobility company from the university campus in the days of your Masters Degree programme?
The key motivation for us then, was to address the identified gap in the mobility business and to tap into the enormous growth potential in the African mobility business. Africa has the largest population of young people who are smart and energetic, and looking for access to finance to achieve their dreams. So we saw the huge potential for mobility business in Africa at that time, especially in transportation sector, and we decided to focus on the mobility business in the transport sector.
After nine years of doing business in the mobility industry, will you say you have achieved your dreams or close to achieving them?
After nine years, I cannot say we have achieved our dreams. But just like the founder of Amazon said that every day is day one, I will say that we have made a lot of progress in terms of the impact. The potential in the African mobility sector is still huge and we are just scratching the surface. Yes we are happy about the impact we have made so far, by creating over 45, 000 jobs, saved over 550,000 tons of greenhouse gas emission, with our drivers completing over 400 million trips and deliveries, covering over two billion kilometres, but looking at the huge potentials in the African mobility industry, compared with the number of people who need vehicles in the transport space around the African continent, I will conveniently say there is still so much to be achieved and we are just scratching the surface level because the potential in the mobility sector is really huge.
Having operated successfully for nine years, how will you describe your sustainability drive and how has it helped the company stay competitive in the mobility market?
MAX has embraced the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles from inception. Sustainability is very key to us as a business and we see sustainability from our business model, operating model, how we utilise technology and in terms of our financing. Our sustainability model has made it very easy and simple for customers to use our products. Access to finance and credit are big challenges facing people on the African continent, and MAX from inception, was set out to solve such challenges, and we are working with global partners and investors to address the challenges and to create access and ensure that people are able to come onboard on our platform, even though they do not have bank account or prior savings. So from a financial sustainability standpoint, we have done tremendous work there. We are also the pioneer drivers of electric vehicles on the African continent. Since 2018, we have been piloting and designing and testing our electric motorcycles for the African continent and we are proud to be one of the companies at the very forefront that are driving innovation in mobility on the African continent.
Since MAX currently operates in 18 cities across Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon, what are your plans for expansion beyond these countries and cities?
MAX has a very ambitious expansion plan. We are currently in 18 cities across three African countries, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon, and we are planning to expand to Uganda, Togo and other African countries shortly. We plan to expand to additional four countries within the next two years to cover Kenya, Tanzania and more, and we have a product that is in high demand across Africa.
What are some of the challenges in the mobility sector and how will MAX manage such challenges going forward?
Yes, there are many challenges facing the mobility industry in Africa, and some of the challenges are in physical infrastructure like roads, and governments in Africa are actually addressing them. However, things that have to do with technology innovation and financial inclusion are best handled by privately owned companies like MAX. There are some challenges that do not require huge financial investments to address, and that is where technology innovation comes into play. MAX is trying to ensure that some of the challenges are best addressed through technology innovation.
Africa is a populous continent and Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Do you see the available mobility channels matching with the growing population of Africa?
So if we think about mobility in terms of the challenges it solves in our everyday lives, we will appreciate the impact of mobility on our growing population. Most of the important aspects of mobility that we might want to consider are things like safety, accessibility, affordability and sustainability, where safety means the peace of mind that it brings, accessibility means the ease of getting it when needed, affordability means the ability to get it in terms of cost, and sustainability means the ability to sustain it over a period of time. When one begins to think about the roles of mobility in these four dimensions (safety, affordability, accessibility and affordability), one will be compelled to come up with innovative solutions that will meet the needs, and that is exactly what we have been doing at MAX, trying to meet the mobility needs of the growing population of the African people. Probably one will say there are no enough transportation options that fit into the four key dimensions of mobility. In some cases we have transportation options like the motorbikes that are not safe, and in some cases, we have high cost of vehicles that make mobility not really affordable. In Nigeria, motorcycles and vehicles used to be affordable, but today, the cost has gone so high that the majority of people can no longer afford it. Cost of transportation services is also on the rise as well, and that is where innovation comes in, where people begin to think of technology solutions that will make the cost of mobility a lot cheaper for the people. So MAX is looking at reducing the cost mobility by investing in Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Electric Vehicles (EVs) that will be a lot cheaper to use and maintain. So we need more solutions to address the challenges of mobility, in line with the growing population.
How is MAX leveraging emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain technology in driving the growth of mobility business in Africa?
Technology is fundamental in what we are doing at MAX, and we leveraging emerging technologies in creating solutions that address the challenges in the mobility industry. We have leveraged Internet of Things (IoT) technology in implementing some of our mobility features. We have also leveraged technology to develop solutions that are driving financial inclusion in the mobility industry. We are leveraging emerging technologies to manage our growing fleet. We have leveraged technology to build platforms that provide comfort for manufacturers and financial institutions, including financiers that finance purchases of vehicles for customers. So we have leveraged emerging technologies to build solutions for fleet management, fleet operations, credit scoring, data wallets, among others, and we have layered some AI algorithms on these solutions to automate our mobility operations across Africa. Today we have exceeded 35,000 vehicles on our platform that are generating data on a daily basis in real time, and these data help us in quality decision making.
How are government policies impacting the mobility industry in Nigeria and Africa?
Government policies impact almost every sector of the Nigerian economy, be it in financial industry or the mobility industry, but in the mobility industry, we can feel the impact of government policies on road infrastructure, especially in the cities, as well as on import duties. For us, we proactively engage with governments in countries where we operate and governments are providing incentives for electric vehicles and CNG vehicles. So I will say government policies are impacting positively on our mobility business.
The federal government is keen about electric vehicles (EVs) that will reduce carbon emissions from the society. MAX pioneered EVs in Nigeria and currently has the M3 motorcycles, T1 passenger Tricycles and T2 logistics Tricycles in its range. What are your plans to achieve this shift and encourage sustainable mobility in the country?
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We can see the policy direction government in EVs and CNG vehicles and MAX has also come up with different strategies to accelerate EVs in Africa. To date, MAX has deployed close to 500 electric vehicles across the cities where we operate, and that is in response to the rapid government changing policies in the mobility space. We are partnering different government departments to ensure affordability of electric vehicles. We also have on-going conversation with key stakeholders in the CNG space to accelerate the transition from petrol engines to CNG powered vehicles in Nigeria.
What is MAX vision for the mobility sector and what kind of support do you need to achieve your vision?
The vision and core values of MAX have not changed from inception, but our methodologies have changed in line with global technology trends. Our vision had always been to make transportation a lot more safe, accessible, affordable and sustainable. But the methods of achieving our vision and mission have changed. Initially we were providing ride hailing services but later we became involved in vehicle subscriptions and rentals and financing services, and now we have also added electric vehicles and battery charging networks to the business model. Our goal is to ensure that mobility becomes easily accessible and safe for everyone on the African continent.
How do you see the prospect of mobility industry in Africa, vis-à-vis the poor infrastructural development on the African continent?
Infrastructure is always a challenge in Africa because it is capital intensive, and African governments have a lot to do in terms of investments in infrastructure that will drive mobility business across African countries. Again, the private companies also have a role to play in infrastructure development in Africa. Growth in infrastructure is key in achieving the kind of growth we desire in the mobility industry. So government and the private sector have their roles and responsibilities to foster growth in the mobility industry.
After nine years of successful operations, what is the next plan for MAX and what should the mobility industry be expecting from MAX going forward?
Yes, we have done successful business in the last nine years, and we are coming out stronger with more innovative solutions for the mobility industry going forward. So people should watch out for bigger partnerships that MAX will be announcing going forward, they should watch out for rapid progress in electric vehicles and they should also watch out for new technology innovations that MAX will be bringing to the mobility industry. We will also be opening new markets within and outside of the African continent.
